@Sebastian
That’s very interesting. As I say above, I know some other native speakers of German who have claimed that their native German was of absolutely no help when, for example, learning Latin at school. So maybe different folks have a slightly different take on this?
Obviously, it is very hard for me to put myself into the position of a native speaker of German, because the language I learned as a child - English - doesn’t decline its nouns for case!
When I was learning German as an adult, I do remember feeling as if there were an extra layer of complexity to the language, for which my brain seemed to lack the necessary “mental apparatus”. I can remember making a deliberate effort to try and develop this skill - and I think I eventually did so with at least some degree of success.
(And for what it’s worth: I am pretty sure that I could now apply this to other languages without too much trouble…)
JayB - I think language learning often works by comparison. If the student is able compare something with penny-dropping moments: ahhh that is like that and that in German (or whatever language he or she speaks), things seem easier as you already understand the structure in another language. There should be no reason why this skill was not tranferable if you already knew German and was studying Russian, you would be able to draw the same comparisons as a native speaker. I think.
Language acquisition theories speak of a bilingual children learning a third language as having an advantage over non bilingual. They no longer have to learn “how to learn” another language. They went through that process already. Maybe this is similar here.
It’s a fair point about guys doing Latin at school - I’m guessing that many pupils in Germany do it because they have to! (Which is actually rather a shame, IMO.)
However, I think Marianne may be right that children who are raised bilingually do better at languages in school. (Perhaps I’m wrong, but I seem to remember hearing somewhere that there is some research to back this up?)
I do actually think children learn (although I know researchers call this acquire as Imyrtheshem rightly pointed out). For example bilingual children I think have a period where they speak both or more languages simultaneously in one sentence. At that point the child may not yet know he is speaking two different languages that is jumbled up and which may be largely unintelligible to others. Learning to separate these is learning as far as I am concerned. But I am not familliar with the research supporting this.
Yes, and I guess children are also starting with (as it were) a “blank linguistic canvas”. (Also their brains are still generally at an early stage of development.)
I think we are splitting hairs here. Is a child learning to walk? Is a child learning to ride a bicycle?. Is there a difference? He is setting out to learn to do something and he is practicing in order to achieve that goal. I think it is all learning. But this is semantics as far as I am concerned.
Moving away from German, I have a question regarding the use of singular personal pronouns as employed by 3-year old native English speakers.
My British granddaughter still gets her “he/she, his/her” in a muddle. For example, she’d say about her - girl - cousin: “He doesn’t speak much, you know. Where is his coat?” [At least, she’s consistent.]